"Just as soon as possible," answered Miss Kilburn. Words take on a colour
of something more than their explicit meaning from the mood in which they
are spoken: Miss Kilburn had a sense of hurrying her visitor away, and the
old lady had a sense of being turned out-of-doors, that the preparations
for the homeward voyage might begin instantly.




II.


Many times after the preparations began, and many times after they were
ended, Miss Kilburn faltered in doubt of her decision; and if there had
been any will stronger than her own to oppose it, she might have reversed
it, and stayed in Rome. All the way home there was a strain of misgiving
in her satisfaction at doing what she believed to be for the best, and the
first sight of her native land gave her a shock of emotion which was not
unmixed joy. She felt forlorn among people who were coming home with all
sorts of high expectations, while she only had high intentions.

These dated back a good many years; in fact, they dated back to the time
when the first flush of her unthinking girlhood was over, and she began
to question herself as to the life she was living. It was a very pleasant
life, ostensibly. Her father had been elected from the bench to Congress,
and had kept his title and his repute as a lawyer through several terms
in the House before he settled down to the practice of his profession
in the courts at Washington, where he made a good deal of money. They
passed from boarding to house-keeping, in the easy Washington way, after
their impermanent Congressional years, and divided their time between